To Call Our Own
by Emerald-Latias
Summary: Companion piece to Raindrops - A name defines who you are, gives you a place in the world. Rinoa decides that their unborn child deserves a place in the world too.


**To Call Our Own**

**Summary – **(Companion piece to Raindrops) A name defines who you are, gives you a place in the world. Rinoa decides that their unborn child deserves a place in the world too.

**Disclaimer – **Me own nothing. Just story. ...Yep.

**Author's Notes – **Aah, this has been on my backburner for the longest time and now I've finally been able to finish the darn thing. Anyways the story behind this one is that after the awesome responses I got from Raindrops in January, I thought I'd do a companion piece to it like I did for Pink December. And well...this is what I ended up with.

Keep in mind that you don't have to read Raindrops to follow this one. However, for those of you who have, this takes place sometime before Squall gets the call. It's a lot happier in contrast to Raindrops. Enjoy!

P.S. – The library girl's name in here is Amy.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-_—-—-_

"Rinoa?"

Lying peacefully on the right side of the mattress, Rinoa glanced at her husband at the foot of the bed. She cast him her best smile. It was always like this in the morning. More specifically when Cid would insist Squall take a week's vacation. Today was his fifth day off.

"Yes Squall?" she answered sweetly, despite knowing what he wanted anyway.

"It's past nine. ...Shouldn't you be up?"

Her smile grew larger. She was right on the money. Then again, she was always right on the money.

"No, not really. I was thinking of staying in bed_ all_ day." she said with an exaggerated yawn, stretching her arms. Rinoa always loved seeing him at the foot of the bed like that, looking very much like a lost puppy dog. Teasing him like this had almost become like a morning ritual. Well, to her at least. Squall, on the other hand, never caught on. He was endearing like that.

And sure enough, right after she teased him, he came over to her side of the bed – most likely to implore her to reconsider. One look into those cerulean eyes of his was it took for her to decide to get up.

"Okay. I'll get up." She tossed the covers aside. "But I hope you know that I'm only doing this because I know how much you love to show off your favourite wife in the cafeteria anyway."

"...You're my only wife."

She slowly moved her feet over the edge of the bed and looked up at him. "-All the more reason why I'm your favourite."

Just when it looked like he was going to roll his eyes, he extended a hand to her.

"No. I'm good."

With her feet on the floor and her palms on either side of her, Rinoa used the leverage from her arms to get up without any assistance. She felt proud of herself. Even though she was seven-and-a-half months into her pregnancy, Rinoa was still able to retain her independence, albeit with somewhat clumsy results at times.

"Still got it." she happily declared.

He furrowed his eyebrows. "Still got what?"

"I can still do things by myself." she explained. "Things like getting out of bed."

"You would have gotten up more easily if you would have taken my hand." he pointed out.

"No, no, it's just the principle of the matter. I'm just happy that I don't have to burden you for trivial stuff. Plus I'm getting really big now, so I don't want to put strain on your back."

He tossed her a wry look. "...You're telling this to the same person who carried you from FH to Esthar at one point?"

"That doesn't count Squall. That was ages ago and I was a lot lighter."

"Well, if memory serves, so was I."

Having an extremely stubborn husband who had undergone a late growth spurt at the age of eighteen had its disadvantages at times, such as now, when she was trying to prove her point. She was banking on the fact that he would have forgotten that his seventeen-year old self was about two inches shorter and still had that boyish figure, not the broad and well-defined one she was now looking at. No such luck.

"Okay...you win." she grudgingly conceded. "I'll..." She shifted her eyes a little. "...ask for help if I need it."

He looked at her skeptically. "...That didn't sound too convincing."

"I'm sorry. I just don't want to be the same helpless girl who you always had to save all those years ago. I want to keep whatever independence for as long as I can."

He took a step forward and now her face was directly under his, under the serene watch of those blue-grey eyes again. God did she ever love to get lost in those eyes.

"_Just because you ask for help doesn't mean you're weak._" he said calmly, almost in an unintentionally seductive way. Rinoa serenely placed her head against his shoulder and smiled.

"...You're starting to sound like me. I'm scared." she softly noted with a touch of playful sarcasm. When Rinoa looked up at him a second later, she noticed a slight grimace on his face. "I saw that look on your face Squa_ll_-_oh—_"

Squall sharply tilted his head to directly gaze into her eyes. Rinoa saw a definite spark of uneasiness lurking within their blue depths. "...Something wrong?"

She shook her head and continued to warmly smile at him. "Nope, it was just our little baby kicking away." she said dreamily.

The uneasy glint in her husband's eyes melted away with a single cleansing blink of the eye and the beginnings of a faint smile on his face after this affirmation. Rinoa loved this side of him, the side he had started to show when they'd had their first kiss on the balcony and continued to show all throughout the following years. It went without say that Rinoa felt truly blessed to be one of the few to have witnessed this change and to have seen the rewards it had brought first-hand, namely that sweet and beautiful smile of his among other things, including the child that was currently growing inside of her.

With a tranquil sigh, Rinoa came out of her deep reverie, snapping back into reality. "I think this baby is going to have your cat-like reflexes Squall. I was just about to put your hand on my stomach so you'd feel the kicks but then they stopped. I wish I could catch them on time for a change."

"It's fine Rinoa. I'm sure I'll be able to feel it someday."

Rinoa sighed again as she nestled her head in the crook of his neck. "I really hope you can Squall, the feeling, it's just...indescribable. Even when everyone else had their turn, Selphie, Quistis, Amy...it was pretty amazing to feel their babies kick but it's nothing like feeling ours." She let out a soft giggle. "Maybe we should make that a goal today, to have you feel a kick. We could stay in bed all day and you can keep your hand on my stomach."

"I wouldn't be surprised if I still missed it kick somehow."

Rinoa took a step backwards to put her hands at her hips and pout in mock-annoyance. "_Hey..._what did I say about calling the baby an '_it_'? You might jinx us and we'll end up having a robot." she light-heartedly chided.

Squall didn't hesitate to smirk on this one. "I say '_it_' because '_he or she'_ is too much of a mouthful and you insist on being surprised." he smoothly replied.

"Hyne, I think it was mistake to let Dr. Kadowaki tell you what we're having at that last ultrasound. As much as I like surprises, I have to stop myself at least five times a day from asking you." she joked; her hands now rested on the top of her stomach. "But maybe...it's about time I finally let myself ask you."

He furrowed his eyebrows. "...This_ isn't_ a test, is it?"

Rinoa sat back down on the bed she worked so hard to get out of a few minutes earlier. She patted the tousled sheets on her right, gesturing for him to sit down. When he uneasily sat down beside her, Rinoa scooted closer to him and placed her hand on top of his. As their eyes connected, Rinoa made sure to give him a reassuring smile.

"No, it's not a test Squall. I..." She looked down for a moment and let out a small chuckle before looking up again. "...After a lot of thinking, I want to know because_..._ I want to feel more like a family now, not when the baby comes." Rinoa tilted her head downward again. This time, her eyes were solely focused on the swell of her stomach. "...I don't want the abstract idea of a baby anymore; I want to find out so that when he or she comes, I'll feel like I've known him or her already, not like I'm meeting them for the first time."

Rinoa's gaze slowly rose and found its way towards her husband's face. With a pained expression tugging at the corners of her eyes and lips, she mustered the courage to look into his eyes. She couldn't maintain the eye contact though. "_That...probably sounded selfish to hear me say something like that...didn't it?_"

Just about when she was going to trail off, Rinoa felt Squall's fingers softly raise her chin up so she'd look directly into his eyes again. He seemed to be analyzing her features as it if were an extensive scouting mission of some sort. What she didn't bargain for was the official report at the end after he withdrew his upholding fingers; his face mere inches away from hers.

"It's not selfish Rinoa. You're preparing yourself to make sure you can devote as much time and energy towards our child without the initial mental catch-up of finding out the sex taking anything away from that." he reasoned. "Selfish would be finding out just for the sake of knowing what colours to paint the baby's room or to be able to choose gender-specific clothes."

Before she knew it, Rinoa had already blinked twice and leaned forward to delicately wrap her arms around his neck. If there was anything that could be said about the man sitting beside her, is that he never ceased to amaze and astonish her with his arbitrary moments of deep insight and the way they always seemed to strike the right chords within her. Whether it was the hormones talking or something else, Rinoa was about to burst in tears of joy as she felt his arms draw her in closer and rest his head at the crook of her neck. As she felt the warmth grow between them, a flurry of sensations began to overwhelm her, suddenly giving away to one specific sensation taking place for the second time today. This time, Rinoa was determined to do what she couldn't before. And so, she abruptly yanked one of his hands down to the top of her tummy.

A few seconds had passed before Rinoa noticed a change of expression on his face. They locked eyes again and she just knew that he'd felt something since the kicks had continued long after she'd placed his hand on her stomach. Squall quietly withdrew his hand and intently studied her features for a brief moment before he must have found the nerve to say anything. He straightened out his posture.

"Rinoa...I finally felt our son kick."

She froze at these words. "..._We're having a little boy?_" He calmly nodded. Immediately, she broke into an ear-to-ear smile. "Don't take this the wrong way but...I think this will be news to everyone else."

Squall quirked an eyebrow. "...What do you mean?"

Rinoa let out a small giggle. "This has nothing to do with the reason I asked you to tell me the sex of our baby but, just out of curiosity, I asked everyone in the gang what they thought we were having. And...it just so happens that every single one of them thought it was going to be a girl. Well...Zell, Irvine and Seifer admitted that they were hoping that we'd have a girl to see how you'd deal with that but...that's not the point."

"You're right, it isn't the point. So..." He hesitated a little. "...are you okay with this?"

"You don't have to ask that Squall, of course I am." she beamed. "He's ours and that's all that matters."

A soft, calm expression painted over his features. Squall looked as if he was going to say something but he never did as they sat around in silence for the next couple of moments. After the idea of having a baby boy had begun to properly register in her mind, Rinoa decided it would be best to tackle the next thing on her mental list while she had him all to herself.

"Squall?" He turned his head in her direction. "I was wondering if we could do something for the baby today. ...Something that we've been putting off for quite awhile now."

Squall shifted his eyes. "It doesn't involve shopping...does it?"

Rinoa had a laugh at his unfounded apprehension. "No, no. Between the baby shower, hand-me downs and shopping I did over the past couple of months I think we're good." After she got the lingering chuckles out of her system, she continued. "I was actually wondering if we could try to pick out a name for our boy. Selphie gave me the baby name book she used when she was pregnant with Ashley a couple of days ago. I was thinking that we could look through it sometime today?"

He calmly nodded. "Sure."

"Okay. So we'll get dressed and have breakfast at the cafeteria with the others first then?"

"That's fine."

After he got up, Squall turned around and offered his hand to her. This time, Rinoa gladly accepted it.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-_—-—-_

Sitting on the edge of their bed, Rinoa leafed through the pages of the baby book while her husband was on her right. Nearing the latter section of the book, judging by the lopsided spread of pages, she pointed to a name in the middle of the page. They'd been at this for nearly four hours now. And so far, each potential name resulted in a 'no', followed by an explanation by from either party. There were no 'maybes' or 'potential candidates' to be heard of. Their unborn child was as nameless as ever.

"What about this one Squall?"

"No, he might get confused with Seifer and Quistis's son."

"Alright, that one's off the list...even though I doubt our son would be confused with Jason since he won't have bright blond hair." she conceded. "And I suppose you don't want anything close to Cameron so that he won't be confused with Zell and Amy's boy either?"

He nodded. Rinoa had to laugh at this. Luckily after seeing what Selphie had been like when it came to names, she'd gained a lot of patience for the painstaking search for the perfect moniker. Even by comparison, Squall wasn't anywhere as bad. She could tell that he was waiting for a particular name out of the thousands to pop out at him.

"I never thought that a man with so few words would be so picky." she joshed. "I think we've already gone through all of the names already."

"You have to live with a name forever though." he reasoned, contrasting her light-hearted tone as he normally did. Even after all these years, joking around was never his forte, nor was catching jokes for that matter. "And the last thing I need is a son who's forced to live with a name that's as ridiculous as mine."

"I know, I know. I was only joking anyway." she added. "Besides, your name isn't that bad Squall. I've seen a lot worse in the Forest Owls back in the day, believe me."

"I doubt much could be worse than a name that means, '_a loud cry_' or '_a sudden violent gust of wind or localized storm._'" he dully pointed out.

"No, I think this one guy I knew still had you beat. His name was Tonberry, just like the GF. We always called him Tom though."

"Okay...maybe that is worse."

"That's what I thought." she said with a slight smirk. Flipping back to the very front of the book again, Rinoa chuckled when she found a few faded highlighted patches. She looked away from the page. "I had totally forgotten that Selphie had me highlight all of the names she liked when she was pregnant all those years ago. Come to think of it, I used to have nightmares of this book until Irvine intervened."

For a reason unbeknownst to Rinoa, Squall furrowed his eyebrows. "Do you remember when this was?"

"Yeah, I think I do. Selphie was a little over five months along at the time so that'd make it..." Rinoa paused to think for a second. "...around February?"

Squall tersely smirked. "That explains it."

Rinoa raised a brow. "Explains what?"

"A month after I'd proposed to you, you started slapping me in your sleep and I never figured out why. It was bad enough during those couple of days that I needed to put several pillows between us."

She bit her lip. "Hyne, I can't decide if this is something I should laugh about or apologize for."

"That was over 8 years ago Rinoa," he reasoned, "-you can laugh."

Instead of laughing or even apologizing, Rinoa merely blinked. "Hyne, it's been that long already?"

"Yeah, it has." he plainly asserted. "Ashley's eight, Jason's three in December, Cassie and Cameron are two."

Rinoa almost felt like shaking her head to rid herself of the cobwebs that must have been in there. It was all very mind-boggling once all the figures where tallied and totalled like that – especially when she mentally added that themselves, Selphie and Irvine and Amy and Zell were wed seven years ago while Seifer and Quistis had married the year after.

She sweetly smiled at him, adding, "And our little boy will be added to that list soon, although he might be a little boy who'll end up with a made-up name at this rate."

Squall raised an eyebrow. "Why are you saying that?"

"I wasn't kidding about running out of boys' names in the book." she noted, jabbing a finger at the sizable book for emphasis. "...I think we have to start being a little less picky about this, otherwise we might get desperate and end up choosing the name Doomtrain or Cerberus. _Hey_...those don't sound too bad, what do you think Squall?"

If it was at all possible, Squall raised his brow further. "I think your sense of humour is warped Rinoa."

Rinoa giggled a little. "Well, I'm glad that we aren't that desperate yet. Can you imagine if we did though? People would be asking, _'Did you name your son after your favourite GF?'_ And I'd joke around and say that if I would have named him after my favourite GF his name would have been Alexander." When Rinoa caught a flicker of change in Squall's expression, most notably the lowering of his one eyebrow, she tilted her head quizzically. "What is it Squall? Did I say something odd?"

"I know you meant it as a joke but...Alexander's not a bad name."

"Well, it is a normal name...hold on, let me check something first." Right then, Rinoa started to flip through the first few pages until she hit the one with Alexander on it. Tracing her finger onto the name's meaning, she read the passage aloud. "So the name means...defender of men or of mankind and it's of Winhill origin." Rinoa looked up at her husband with a hopeful look in her eye. "Well, other than naming our baby something water-related like Tempest, Storm or River, I'd say that this would a great name to commemorate your past Squall. Does Alexander Leonhart sound like our son's name to you?"

"It..." he faltered a little, something seemed to be caught in his throat. There was a brief moment of silence. "...It does."

Almost coincidentally, Rinoa felt a pair of quick kicks soon thereafter. She almost had to laugh at the timing. "...I think he likes the name too. I just felt some more kicks."

Squall offered her a meager ghost of a smile. "_So...it's settled then?_" he softly asked.

"I think so. Alex has nice ring to it." Rinoa scooted closer to him, sensing something off with his tone. "...Something the matter Squall?"

He quietly turned his eyes away. "Picking out a name...it makes all of this seem...so much more concrete than I would have ever imagined."

Rinoa set the book aside and grasped his one hand gingerly with her own. "...You're not getting worried again, are you?"

With one glance, she could see that doubts began to cloud his vision, insecurities weighed on the corners of his lips and internal struggles marred what would have been a happy moment between the two of them inside his mind. Now she was the one mirroring his frown, mimicking his expression, desperate to remedy the problem. Although her grip on his hand allowed her to bring them closer in a literal sense, she realized that maybe it was about time she reached for the metaphorical. Sliding down the slight grip on hand to his wrist, Rinoa brought his hand closer to her and firmly pressed the palm of his hand onto her well-rounded stomach once more.

"There's no reason to be afraid of something that innocent Squall." she gently intoned. "We'll get through any obstacles this may bring like we always do. I just know it."

Whether it was the negative expression that had considerably softened on his face, the fact that he hadn't moved his hand from the spot she'd placed it or that he didn't seem as tense, Rinoa couldn't help but feel like she'd reached him on some level. Curling up beside him, she watched his sweet blue eyes survey her every move. As she slowly reached upwards and traced the rough contours of his trademark, but now-faded scar with her index finger, Squall reflexively closed those blue eyes and squirmed a little from her touch. Rinoa smiled.

"Hey...don't you go hiding those blue eyes of yours Mr. Leonhart." she teased. "I'll have you know that they're what made me fall for you in the first place and to this day, I keep on falling every time I see them."

Once he reopened his eyes, Squall lifted his hand off her stomach and tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and took a moment to carefully study her features as her smile grew exponentially. In turn, he flashed her one of the elusive smiles he normally reserved just for her.

"That's better." she continued. "God, if Alex gets your smile or those eyes of yours I think we'll be in trouble. He'll be a heartbreaker. We'll have to keep him away from Cassie and Ashley."

Squall rolled his eyes. "That's assuming he won't have my personality," he sarcastically quipped, "...or as Seifer likes to point out, lack there of."

Rinoa giggled. "You don't give yourself nearly enough credit. I think if you could have been a heartbreaker if you chose to act that way when you were younger. You certainly look like you could have."

"...That sounded like backhand compliment."

"Okay, okay, I'll stop." And as good as her word, she stopped, only to receive a kiss on the forehead. Rinoa give him a quick peck back. "I hope you know it's those sorts of things that lead me to draw those kinds of conclusions."

"Whatever."

Choosing not to chastise him for using the age-old taboo word, the couple rested there in silence, exchanging small tokens of appreciation towards each other's company with simple gestures until an outside force had interrupted them.

The phone was ringing on the other side of the room.

-—-—-—-—-—-—-—-_—-—-_

**Ending Comments – **Hehe...Isn't it ironic how this ended up finishing this on Father's Day? I think so. Anyways, I hope you guys liked it even though I know I've probably done better as far as writing goes. Reviews are always welcome though. :)

_-Emerald-Latias_


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